Title: A guided focused ion beam nanofabrication technique using a metal precursor

Authors: Wasim Haskiya

Addresses: Irish Robotics Academy, Unit 1, Dublin Road, Kildare Town, Co Kildare, Ireland

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to present a novel nano-manufacturing technique for the fabrication of nano-scale systems, such as mechanical machines and printed circuits, etc. The proposed technique utilises a guided focused ion beam (FIB) through a pattern mask to a substrate where it decomposes a metal organic gas to generate a reduced outline copy of the mask, yielding the required system design. The novelty of this technique is in the ability to fabricate nano-scale systems layer-by-layer rather than atom-by-atom through the adjustment of the vertical position of the fabricated part. To demonstrate the proposed technique, a simulation model was designed and tested. The simulation results have shown that a reduction in the perimeter of the fabricated part feature can be achieved easily by adjusting its vertical position with respect to the beam focused point from a 100 to 400 times. Further investigation revealed that the growth rate is a function of a precursor flux. For example, using a titanium precursor flux below the 2 × 1010 molecules/cm2.s then sputtering is more predominant, and above that value, a net deposition will occur at a growth rate of 5.3 × 10−05 cm/s.

Keywords: nanomanufacturing; FIB deposition; focused ion beam nanofabrication; metal organic precursor gas; outline features; precursor flux; nanotechnology; simulation; layer-by-layer fabrication.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNM.2014.060794

International Journal of Nanomanufacturing, 2014 Vol.10 No.3, pp.234 - 243

Received: 10 May 2013
Accepted: 19 Jul 2013

Published online: 17 May 2014 *

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